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Immigration is increasingly becoming a point of tension in Ireland. The Irish government recently said the threat of deportation to Rwanda had partly fueled a surge in arrivals entering Ireland via the land border with Northern Ireland, a route it says now accounts for more than 80% of the republic’s asylum seekers. The Irish Refugee Council and other advocacy groups questioned the figure. On Monday, a judge in Belfast ruled that large parts of the UK government’s illegal migration law should not apply in Northern Ireland because they breach human rights laws; the UK government said it would appeal the decision.
Today in Focus presenter Hannah Moore talk with Rory Carroll, the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent on immigration policy in Ireland. He tells Hannah that the changing population, housing crisis and social and economic inequalities have led to growing anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland. In November, riots broke out after a stabbing in Dublin. Commentators on social media declared the alleged attacker a foreigner – in fact he was a naturalized Irish citizen, reportedly from Algeria – and a violent outcry followed. Hundreds of people ran amok in central Dublin, targeting properties and police.
Leon Diop, co-founder of Black & Irish, says the riots were a watershed moment and that he believes racism has become overblown in Ireland. Before that, he says, “I really didn’t feel like I could be physically attacked. Now there were incidents in Ireland where people were killed because they didn’t speak English.
Archive: Channel 4 News; YouTube
Photo: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
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